Buddha to Krishna

BUDDHA TO KRISHNA This book traces the emergence of modernism in art in South Asia by exploring the work of the iconic artist George Keyt. Closely interwoven with his life, Keyt’s art reflects the struggle and triumph of an artist with very little support or infrastructure. He painted as he lived: full of colour, turmoil and intensity. In this compelling account, the author examines the eventful course of Keyt’s journey, bringing to light unknown and star- tling facts: the personal ferment that Keyt went through because of his tumultuous relationships with women; his close involvement with social events in India and Sri Lanka on the threshold of Independence; and his somewhat angular engagement with artists of the ’43 Group. A collector’s delight, including colour plates and black and white pho- tographs, reminiscences and intimate correspondences, this book reveals the portrait of an artist among the most charismatic figures of our time. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of art and art history, modern South Asian studies, sociology, cultural studies as well as art aficionados. Yashodhara Dalmia is an art historian and independent curator based in New Delhi, India. She has written several books including Amrita Sher- Gil: A Life (2006) that have received widespread international acclaim. She is also the author of The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives (2001) and Journeys: Four Generations of Indian Artists (2011). She has curated many art shows, with the most recent being the centenary show ‘Amrita Sher-Gil: The Passionate Quest’ at the National Gallery of Mod- ern Art in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru in 2014. BUDDHA TO KRISHNA Life and Times of George Keyt Yashodhara Dalmia First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 Yashodhara Dalmia The right of Yashodhara Dalmia to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-23272-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-31145-6 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Apex CoVantage, LLC FOR MY MOTHER CONTENTS List of plates ix List of figures x Preface xi Acknowledgements xiv 1 A fine start 1 2 Valley of romance 15 3 Away and beyond 34 4 Buddhism and sensuality 51 5 The ’43 Group and modernism unfolds 66 6 The Indian encounter 96 7 The saga of Manike 112 8 Martin’s journey 121 9 Internationalism and fame 145 10 New pastures, fecund fields 163 vii Contents 11 The final years 186 12 The flaming torch 205 Index 214 viii PLATES I Kandyan Portrait II Portrait of Govindamma III Sringara Rasa IV Maheshvara V Jalaja VIa Mahamaya’s Dream VIb At the Palace with Yashodhara VII The Journey VIII Woman with Sheaf IX Ploughing X Sringar XI Girl Singing XII Bhima and Jarasandha XIII Girl with Mirror XIV Friends XV Tilak XVI Radha and Krishna ix FIGURES 1.1 George Keyt 8 2.1 Ruth Keyt nee Jansz 16 2.2 George Keyt with his daughter Diana 19 2.3 Flavia Keyt 27 3.1 George and Manike 37 3.2 Nayika and Sakhi 39 3.3 Sigiriya maidens 41 4.1 Defeat of Mara and his daughters 56 4.2 Mara’s demonic army surrounding the Buddha 59 4.3 Forces of Mara 60 5.1 The ’43 Group 69 5.2 Key to the ’43 Group 76 5.3 Portrait of Lionel Wendt 77 5.4 Portrait of Niloufer 79 5.5 The Wave 81 5.6 Seated nude 84 5.7 Blue horse 86 5.8 Female figure 88 5.9 Three figures, baby and tortoise 91 6.1 Lalita Ragini 108 7.1 Manike and Anil de Silva 113 8.1 Martin, Anne, Julian and Stephen 127 8.2 Portrait of Russell’s soul in the guise of a Kandyan peasant 130 9.1 George holding his painting at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 1975 155 10.1 Kusum Reading 165 11.1 Draupadi 191 12.1 Still life with wild flowers 210 x PREFACE One of the most enigmatic of artists, George Keyt’s paintings intrigue and tantalize. His bold, sensuous forms delineated with definitive strokes both reveal and conceal, are decorative yet edgy, modern but also ancient. A glimpse of these makes one wonder about the man behind these strangely captivating works. Yet to understand his persona is to take a path which criss-crosses other trajectories that are equally complex. Mapping this uncharted terrain took me to Sri Lanka, the land of his birth, where it became evident that George Keyt was a charismatic figure and that his name aroused more than reverence. Covering a lifespan of 92 years (1901–93) Keyt, a Burgher, of Eurasian descent, is of impor- tance not only because his work was to pioneer modernism in art in the subcontinent but also because he was the first modern Buddhist artist from South Asia and hence aroused interest in the international sphere. Keyt’s painting of Buddha’s life in the Gotami Vihara in Colombo is a lucid narration of a sensual, open-ended Buddhism that he suggested needs to be inscribed into the creation of an independent country. For this Keyt archived a gamut of artistic practices from the indigenous Sigiriya murals to the Cubist dissection of forms. The artist’s explorations in Hindu mythology and Indian literature led George to have close links with the cultural life of India, where he lived for long and short periods from 1939 right up to the late 1970s. To the Sri Lankan Buddhist sources were added the imagery of Hindu myth and legend as key influences that led to an art of great sensuality and lyricism. In their bold, robust forms and brilliant colours Keyt was to fuse the East and West and, not unlike Amrita Sher-Gil the Indo-Hungarian artist, was to influence successive generations of artists. In his close association with Indian painters like Francis Souza and M.F. Husain he was also to spear- head an emphatic modernism in the subcontinent. xi Preface The drama of Keyt’s life is heightened by the fact that his ancestor, interestingly enough, was a British officer posted in Hyderabad where his liaison with a courtesan from the Nizam’s court led to his expulsion from India and his basing himself in Ceylon. George’s own tempestuous life, which infused his art, led him to renounce his wife and live with the maid who looked after his children and move to her village in Sri Lanka. Subsequently he was besotted by an Indian lady from Bombay and was to marry her and spend the last three decades of his life with her. Keyt’s life acquires another dimension because of his close friendship with an Eng- lishman, Martin Russell, who went back to London and was to interact with him over a prolific correspondence until the end. Russell (nephew of the famed Bertrand Russell) also popularized his work abroad and placed him firmly in the international arena. The life and works of George Keyt, apart from their condensed energy that pioneered modernism, also reflect the social history of the period with all its dramatic upheavals. In his delineation of figures and their specific physiognomies and period costumes, in the archiving of mythology to reflect the struggle against colonialism and in the reflection of life lived by ordinary folk in colonial and post-colonial situations we have a tel- escopic view of events as they spanned the 20th century. The Sri Lankan landscape embedded with a palimpsest of cultures pro- vided the rich matrix for George’s paintings. It was to lead him to India where the country was reverberating with all the energy of a newly found independence and George was to draw from it for many of his works. His international fame followed where Keyt’s name resounded modernity in the subcontinent in a manner that was distinctive and specific. It was no wonder that the poet Pablo Neruda, writing of his works, mentions that ‘These figures take on a strange expressive grandeur, and radiate an aura of intensely profound feeling.’ In tracking Keyt’s journey I made my way to Melbourne and to a mem- orable visit to the oldest surviving member of the ’43 Group, Richard Gabriel, in November 2011. He was in his late eighties, but his mind was vividly alive with narratives of the Group and his engagement with it. Richard took me around his studio in the outskirts of Melbourne, which was like a gallery of paintings, each one a Pandora’s box of events. A sumptuous Sri Lankan meal followed, making it into a morning which one could not forget easily.

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